© Photomusix /C. Marx
Biliana Voutchkova is a dynamic, thoroughly engaged interdisciplinary artist, violinist, composer-performer, improvisor and curator with highly individual, unconventional artistic language. Through the prism of listening, her early training in classical music and the years of development as contemporary artist-performer, she explores states of spontaneity and intuitive resonance embodied in her multifaceted activities. Her work spans the widest possible range of sound, vision, movement and includes concert performances of improvisation, contemporary composition and original site specific work, exhibitions, long durational / multidisciplinary performances, audiovisual works and installation formats with focus on the interconnection between inner world and sound space.
Based between Berlin and her rural residency on the black sea coast of Bulgaria, Biliana works internationally as a soloist, in group and collaborative projects with renowned artists and with ensembles such as the Splitter and Trickster Orchestras, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Zeitkratzer, Ensemble Modern, and her co-founded groups Jane in Ether, Voutchkova/Thieke duo and the Land Stages Collective. She is the founder and curator of DARA String Festival, faculty of the Academy of Arts in Bern/HKB Bern and a SHAPE+ Platform artist for 2022/2023. Alongside her other activities, she is constantly engaged with the organisation and presentation of informal non-institutional events, reaching out and building lasting relationships to her local communities. Biliana is a risk taker approaching contemporary classical repertoire with the same inspiration and freedom characteristic of her forceful improvisations. She has been heard at festivals and concert series worldwide - Skaņu Mežs Festival, Mózg on Screen, Meakusma festival, Maerz Musik, Transmediale/Vorspiel, Option Series, Klangspuren Schwaz, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Experimental Intermedia and Ftarri Festival among those. Her appearances are ranging from celebrated concert venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Berliner Philharmonie and Radial System V in Berlin, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, to the most vivid experimental venues such as Ausland and Kule/Labor Sonor in Berlin, Fylkingen in Stockholm and Cafe Oto in London. Awarded grants include INM/Berlin, National Culture Fund Bulgaria, Musikfonds, the Trust for Mutual Understanding/New York and the Composition Stipend from the Berliner Senate.
Most recently Biliana is developing new work engaging with the connection and translation to visual art forms in long durational performances and installations. Her first solo exhibition - performance will be presented at One gallery / Sofia in March 2021, followed by a presentation in Berlin. Other recent/current projects include solo tours in Colombia, Chile, USA, Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, long durational performances at gallery Sammlung Hoffmann Berlin and Museum of Silence for the Gallery Weekend Berlin with "Blurred Music", the premiers of her variable piece “Amati Lenta” (with Olivia Block) and “Golden delusions” (with Akemi Nagao, Junko Wada, Hans Peter Kuhn) at the One Dance Week festival in Plovdiv (European capital of culture 2019), collaborations with Olaf Nicolai, She She Pop/Zeitkratzer and the Berliner Ensemble, the release “für Biliana”, her solo album "Modus of Raw” and the triplet "Blurred Music" which were received with critical acclaim worldwide.
Born in the family of musicians, Biliana Voutchkova begins playing violin at the age of four, makes her orchestra debut at the age of nine, and records her first CD for the Japanese label Crown Record Ltd. at the age of sixteen. She studies classical violin, in her college years starts being involved with the contemporary and improvised music scene in New York. Among her teachers are Peter Arnaoudov, Abram Stern and Felix Galimir. Ms. Voutchkova holds degrees from the University of Southern California and New School for Social Research/Mannes College of Music in New York (MM in music). She has received top honours at the Kozian International Music Competition, CRS National Competition for Performing Artists, and Music and the Earth International Contemporary Music Competition. At the age of nineteen, she was invited to the United States, and was presented the special Jascha Heifetz Violin Scholarship for for her studies at the University of Southern California. After her move to New York in 1995 her continuous interest and exploration of the music of today remains being a major part of her work.